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Curbing Congress’s Crime Addiction

A rule change to review additions to the federal code.

Jan. 2, 2015 6:47 p.m. ET

The 114th Congress convenes next week and Republicans are discussing major reform from taxes to immigration. A smaller but still refreshing change would give more careful review when creating new federal crimes.

On Monday the House Republican conference will debate the rules of the chamber, including a measure to refer proposed new criminal offenses to the House Judiciary Committee. This is supposed to be the routine practice, but...